


Smoke Signal

by diamondgore



Category: Age of X-Man - Fandom, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Age of X-Man, Alternate Reality, Gen, M/M, Mind Control, Reality Break, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-14 13:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18477187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diamondgore/pseuds/diamondgore
Summary: The truth comes out faster than anyone else could expect it to.





	Smoke Signal

**Author's Note:**

> This is just something that's been brewing in the back of my head for a while, I hope you enjoy it!

Enrollment season was just around the corner. Warren was busy preparing schedules, even at such late hours during the night, it didn’t stop his dedication to the kids. He was sitting at the table with his wings tucked behind him as he worked through the last papers for the new enrollments.

 

He looked outside of the window for a brief moment, looking at the fresh layer of frost that had began to cover the edges of the window in the middle of May.

 

He would’ve considered it odd if it wasn’t for the man in front of him. Dressed in a dress shirt, and brown pants that were held up with suspenders, Bobby Drake approached Warren’s desk, cooling down the room exponentially. Warren wasn’t adverse to the cold, so he this wasn’t a threat, it was Bobby letting go of the tight control he had on his ice powers. 

 

“What can I owe this visit to, old friend?” Warren asked, placing the pen he was writing with on the table. “I don’t believe staying up past midnight is a violation of Department X’s codes.” He smiled, and it was a rare grin stretched across his face. Something about seeing Bobby again made his heart burn with happiness. 

 

He’d rarely got to see his original team since he’d become dean of the school. This work was tedious, rewarding but hard. Warren couldn’t imagine himself working another job, nothing would be this satisfying. 

 

“I have some news to give you.” Bobby smiled too, even though he couldn’t understand why Warren was so happy to see him, and he couldn’t understand why he was so happy to see Warren. “It’s not great news, but it’s not bad news, it’s just news.”

 

There was a definite disconnect between Warren and Bobby, as he’d caught Warren six months ago with a man, lips locked and chests bare. He caught the fear in Warren’s eyes, but only for a moment, as then his eyes were shut tightly. Warren didn’t care that he was caught. All Warren cared about was the moment, and its beauty and pleasure. He let Moneta take his memories, he didn’t care when she winced in disgust. There was no struggle, just a look of resistance in his eyes. He didn’t even scream when Betsy put him to sleep. 

 

To Bobby, he’d done the unthinkable. 

 

He had defied them, and that was dangerous. Bobby was there to witness it all, knowing there was something uncanny happening. That wasn’t the Warren he had trained alongside. The soft boy who had grown into a gentleman. He had to be forced into this version of him, as he was too loving, too emotional, too angry otherwise. Both Nate and Xavier feared his emotions would be the end of him. 

 

But Warren sat in front of Bobby, with his face scrunched up. 

 

“What’s the news?” 

 

Bobby sat down in one of the chairs in front of Warren, straightening himself out to match Warren’s posture. He always looked magnificent, and magical. “Your students, they’ve been acting out lately. We’ve caught one of them, Roxanne Washington, and we suspect the other one might be Victor Borkowski. We don’t want to point our fingers at who might be the common thread.” 

 

“Who might that be?”

 

Bobby tilted his head in Warren’s direction. 

 

“Ah, me.” Warren leaned forward, and fluffed his wings, as if to clear the air. “I am sure they share classes and they share friends too. I am not the only common denominator in their lives.”

 

Bobby huffed. “That’s why I said we don’t want to point fingers. But, you have to admit Warren, there’s something wrong with the way you run the school if a good portion of them are acting out.” He didn’t mention all the kids that had already been taken out of the school and sent to the danger room.

 

“You say good portion, but there seems to be only two mentioned here out of hundreds. Are you accusing me of feeding them lies? Of asking them to revolt? They are just children, Drake.” 

 

There it was, the raw and hot emotion that Warren tried to keep under wraps at all times. The deep rage inside his heart, and the love he had for the kids. Bobby never knew where it came from, he felt nothing for his teammates. Nothing but admiration and sometimes kinship, but nothing deeper. Nothing that couldn’t be severed if he was asked to. The kids were part of Warren. 

 

It reminded him of the first time that he had to hold Warren down while Moneta read his mind. Warren had helped one of his students escape. She was a young girl, a few weeks before her graduation. She had gotten pregnant, fallen in love, and Warren had set her up to escape when her lover got caught, to go somewhere far away where Department X couldn’t get her. He was smart enough to ask one of his students to erase his short term memory, only allowing Moneta to see the identity of the student, not where she was going. This was something Warren had spent days planing, conspiring in plain sight. Allowing himself to get caught was part of the plan, he wanted her to escape, and used up a violation of his own, to save her. 

 

He loved deeply. He cared deeply. A flaw of his biology. 

 

Bobby stared him down. He wasn’t scared of Warren, what would Warren be able to do to an omega level mutant? 

 

“They’re children, Drake. They’re going to make mistakes, and sometimes they get caught up with the wrong types of people. I cannot control everything they do, and you’d be crazy to think that I would ever do that to them, they need to grow into people of their own.” Warren had gotten up out of his chair and leaned over the desk, over his papers, so that he was closer to Bobby, so that they could make eye contact. 

 

“They’re a threat.” Bobby said dryly. “They can influence those--”

 

“So your heart is ice too? They’re kids.” Warren interrupted him, he was boiling with rage. He walked around his desk, so that he would be able to get physical with Bobby, if needed. He loved the kids more than life itself, he’d defend them if needed. “They’ll grow out of it.” 

 

“They’re in their nineteenth year, Worthington.” Bobby got up, out of his chair. If Warren wanted a fight, he’d give him one. “There’s no growing out of.” 

 

Bobby didn’t believe what he was saying, of course. People change, that’s why the danger room existed. People got out sometimes, and became entirely different. There was hope in the kids that Blob had captured a few days ago. There was great promise in all the kids at the Summer Institute, even the rotten eggs. He somewhat understood why Warren would put his life on the line for these kids. Even though he didn’t know any of them, there was a certain connection with them. He couldn’t quite explain it.

 

“They’re good. They’re good kids.” Warren said, but he could offer no evidence. What more could he say? Their grades were irrelevant to Bobby, to Department X. He walked towards the cabinets with all the files of the kids, in order to find Roxy’s folder. He pulled open one of the cabinets, and began rummaging. “Roxy is an impeccable student. She’s never missed a day, and she shows bravery beyond her years. She was just mislead.” 

 

Bobby didn’t have time for the proof, he just need permission to put Roxy under observation. He grabbed Warren’s shoulder and Warren dropped the files in his hands. 

 

There were  _ memories _ that came flooding to him. Memories of hiding his wings and hating them, and his parents dying. There were memories of losing his wings to a man named Apocalypse, and memories of him and the burning passion he had for Candy Southern and Betsy Braddock. 

 

Bobby’s cold touch on his wings, when he helped him into his binder, his terrible jokes and his almost death and multiple fake outs and--- 

 

_ Only when you’re blue. _

 

It was a warbled dying sound, that escaped Warren’s mouth.  Like a bird who was injured, who had its wings torn. He fell to the floor. Something inside him was broken, shattered like a piece of glass. 

 

None of this was his true reality. This was too peaceful of an existence. 

 

“Oh my God,” Warren clutched his head as Bobby watched in horror. “This isn’t real.” 

 

Bobby stepped back, and saw Warren’s wings twitch as he sat on his knees looking at the profile of his stellar student. 

 

“What do you mean?” Bobby’s voice betrayed him, too shocked by the uncertainty and nervousness he’d promised himself he’d gotten rid of. He knew what Warren was talking about, as the memories had come flooding back to him too. 

 

Almost killing his own father, twice, and freezing the world over. His past romances with Lorna, and Zelda. And Judah,  _ oh my G-d _ , Judah and how he lit a fire in his heart that no one else could. He remembered Hank, and how much he loved to lounge with them on the beach. Ice cream for every meal, and how no one stopped him. 

 

He remembered how soft Warren was, with full round cheeks instead of his sharp angular bones. How fucking sad Warren was all the time. 

 

_ Bobby, I don’t want to lose the part of me that’s still alive.  _

 

“X-man. We were on the beach, fighting. I was at peace, then I was full of rage.” Warren ran his hands through his hair, speaking like he had his heart torn out. 

 

“No, you’re imagining things. Those memories aren’t real, they’re leftovers from---” But that didn’t make sense. They weren’t programmed by the government, they weren’t born from hatcheries like the rest. 

 

“None of this is real, Robert.” Warren got off the floor, and turned around in horror. “How long have you known, that none of this was real?”

 

Bobby can’t answer. He’d known for a while that something was off. Bobby was good at being the outsider in every life, so he never really asked anyone else about if everything felt off, when he was longing to belong to people who couldn’t quite accept him. He knew why now, of course, he’d just been cursed with being the black sheep his entire life. 

 

“We have to tell Department X.” Bobby replied, avoiding Warren dark eyes. “They can solve this. We can continue to be happy.” Happiness is a relative thing really, but this was better than living in object horror of the real world, where everyone seemed to hate him. 

 

“What’s the damn happiness worth if it isn’t real?” Warren hissed. “Are you really that much of a coward?” 

 

“I’m not,” Bobby stopped himself. “You were so depressed, and upset. Why do you want to go back there? It’s so dark.”

 

“That’s where we belong, where you and I and everyone else belongs. Our pain was real, but so was everything else we felt. Everything here is manufactured, it doesn’t feel good to be alive here. I’ve felt so empty all my life, and now I know why.”

 

“Warren, they’re not gonna believe you.” Bobby said. “They’re going to take you to the danger room, if you tell them. You’re on your third violation. We have to tell Department X together, not alone. You’re at their mercy”

 

“And? If I do get sent away, at the very least I’d know I was right.”

 

“I think you might break this reality if you do that. You play too big of a part in everyone’s lives. You were an original member—“

 

Warren approached Bobby, and forced him to tilt his head upwards so that he would look at him. “I have to tell Department X, by myself. I have to tell Betsy I love her, and then she’ll know. ”

 

“No, they’ll take you away, Warren. I’ll never see you again.” Bobby cried. He was freaking out. Warren’s intense eyes and the way he could feel his warm breath wasn’t helping him. He had to do something to save Warren from his own stupidity, from his childlike bravado. “They won’t believe you.”

 

He couldn’t lose Warren. Not like this, they’ve lost each other too many times before. He can’t lose Warren again.

 

“People don’t come back from the danger room,” Bobby said. He’d only seen three or four people actually return to their normal lives. “You won’t survive there. Please be rational with me.”

 

It was reasoning with a child, and he could see the burning rebellion in Warren’s eyes.  

 

He grabbed the hand that was tilting his head upwards, and did the unthinkable, but he was in between a rock and hard place, and this was the best way to deal with this without anyone else getting hurt.

 

He froze Warren, and everything else in the room in ice, making sure that the ice was thin enough for Warren to breathe through. 

 

Bobby would tell Betsy that there was an attack, and he tried to defend Warren, and ended up freezing him. Then hopefully she’d wipe Warren’s mind, and none of this would be mentioned again, but he’d have to live with this for the rest of his life. 

 

And he thought he would actually be normal, for once in his life. 


End file.
